Hostage: Another Point of View
by Dragon-Ninjagirl
Summary: You know MariSunny's story Hostage. Well, in this story Tilian tells you about the happenings during Sophie's stay at Lee's base. You should have read Hostage before reading this story. Curious to find out about a lizard's opinion? Last chap up!
1. Another Point of View

A/N: I bet you know MariSunny's story "Hostage". I'm really amazed of it, so I'm gonna rewrite this story! This one tells the whole story just from another POV, namely Tilian's. As one member of the Mu-Team he has to guard Sophie, accomplish Lee's orders etc. I thought it could be interesting to see the story with another one's eyes.

Disclaimer: I do not own A.T.O.M. (wish I did ) and I do not own MariSunny's story "Hostage". I asked her for the rights to use the story.

**Chapter 1**

**Another Point of View**

You really want to know about my opinion? Oh well...my point of view is a bit different from the girl's, Sophie, or Mr. Lee's one. Of course. But hey, I'm just a clone who doesn't get to hear all the news about the happenings. Actually I'm not even allowed to. If Mr. Lee wasn't around I'd say 'who cares?'. What he doesn't get to know doesn't make him upset.

Perhaps this sounds a bit crazy coming from me. The one with most of loyalty towards ML, the leader of a group of mutants. Do I complain about last mentioned? Not really. But from time to time I get the feeling a group of mutated failures are around me...However, that part doesn't belong to the story you're gonna hear. Actually. Ahem...what I want to say is, I'll try to keep sarcastic comments about my team members back, alright? Can't give a guarantee for this.

Now, here we go.

A typical Friday had passed. A mission, another failure, the usual trouble with Mr. Lee. I don't want to get into detail here. Fair enough, isn't it? Anyway, Mr. Lee stood right in front of us now, walking up and down uncalmly. I oppressed a sigh. For a long time silence laid over the scene here. It was hard to stand that silence only broken by Lee's steps.

"No", he said absent-mindedly. "No, that's not gonna work."

"Sir?" I tried to break the silence. And to make him stop talking to himself. It worked, I caught his attention. He looked up, glancing at me with his missmatched eyes. I squinted, still expecting an answer. "What do you mean?"

"We need the disk from Landmark University. Their research about that reptilian cell cultures you stole last time was even farther developed than mine. It'd take me weeks to come as far as they did!"

"So?" Firekat erected her ears in cuiriosity. From the corner of my eye I looked at her, studying her face shortly. She was in her _I-totally-respect-you-and-will-follow-your-oders_-mode. As usual when she was talking to ML. Perhaps she could fool him with that trick, but none of us. Of course we knew she was just acting. Already after a few failures and some trouble with our creator she had been fed up.

When Lee wasn't around it was hard to make her do something on our missions. And usually it was my job to convince her. I grinned mentally. When she didn't want to concur I threatened her with telling Mr. Lee about that. That worked. Always.

"We need that disk. As soon as possible! With the information on it I could..." He started dreaming again. You wanna know why I chose the word _dreaming_? That's easy. He always wants us to steal things, to go on missions which usually end up in a failure. So his plans can be called dreams by now.

I don't know much about his researches and so on, but whatever he does to us, Manning is _always_ a step farther than we are. Well, some weeks before I had an excuse for my failure. After my deep fall in Lee's lab I recovered just slowly. One reason why I wasn't able to beat Manning without the others. I don't like to confess this, but hunting down your enemy with a group of mutants and only using your paralyzing venom.

A weak, but efficient way.

But even after increasing my power and healing my wounds Manning and his friends beat us. The following days Rayza had jeered me with the fact that Manning had been able to enrage me that easily. If you want to know, ignorance is the best way to treat that fish-like thing.

"I want you to steal the disk."

Lee's order pulled me out of my thoughts. My eyes focused him again. Just then he nodded to me. "Tilian, get the helicopter."

Without saying a word I nodded slightly and turned around, leaving the great hall in a fast pace. The grey metal door slid open and closed behind me as I stepped into the long glass corridor, leading to the next sphere of our hideout in the Ridgeback Mountains. Although the floor was carrying me, I walked to get faster to my target. Mr. Lee didn't like waiting very much.

A bit absent-minded I looked through the glassy walls of the corridor. It was dark, a half moon stood at the sky, surrounded by tons and tons of stars. The silky light of the moon fell on the with white snow covered mountains and made them glitter in the light. Even though it was summer, I guessed it was a cold night. And I was right. It was always cold in the mountains.

Actually I don't care about temperature. I'm hematocryal, so it doesn't really matter. But it wasn't going to be cold only in the mountains. In Landmark City itself it would be cold as well.

Finally I reached the 'garage' of our hiding place. Give it a better name, if you can. To be honest, that 'garage' was nothing more than just another greenish-yellow sphere made up of six-sided hardlight cells. Lee had never talked about how he had built this place. Just that he had done it with hardlight. So everything here except some furniture was made up of hardlight.

And I have to admit that such a hardlight-room is not bad. The actual problem is to turn off the light at night...No, no, just a joke in between! 'Course it was possible. Else I'd have some bad insomnias.

Anyway, in the 'garage' stood our vehicles. Including the helicopter. I slipped into the pilot's seat and checked the system. Lee sent me to check it nearly every day, but before each and every start I did it again. A habit I got used to by now. Afterwards I started the machine, the rotors worked, so I went out again to prove the wheels. Just as I finished Mr. Lee and the others entered the sphere.

Wordless they climbed into the heliopter, the rest of my team sat down on the bench in the back, I got on the seat next to Mr. Lee who was going to fly the helicopter. Moments later we took off, heading for the university campus.

It was quite late when we arrived. Okay, it had already been late when we had left our home. But half past two in the morning was a very...torturing time. I sensed the others were not very satisfied with the thought of stealing a disk this night instead of getting some sleep. Lee would make us get up the next day at 6 AM again, to continue our diet.

I swallowed when I thought about this. Since weeks he was just giving us that micro-biotic stuff, nothing else. Something else would be fine...However, if he found out that we planned to give some variety to our diet, he'd put us into cages, kill us or even worse! That's what Wrecka thought as we discussed the plan, by the way. What the plan was? I'll tell you another time.

The helicopter landed on the roof of the university. We got out quickly, this time Lee went with us. It wasn't normal that Lee was coming with us on a mission. I guess he was afraid something could happen again. Like the motto says, if other's fail, do it yourself.

We sneaked down the corridors, trying not to make any sound. We wanted to stay undiscovered as long as possible. Mr. Lee expected to find the disk in the underground level of the building. After walking down some stairs we found a long, dark corridor with lots of supervision cameras. This security system just confirmed Lee's suspicion.

Firekat smirked slightly and let her claws come out. With some quick jumps she leapt from camera to camera, cutting the circuits of each one she passed. On the other end of the corridor she landed on the ground, retracting her claws and moving her tail fore- and backwards. She grinned at us.

_Show-off_, was the first word that ran through my head. But never mind. At least she was doing her job correctly this time. (And I bet it was because of Lee! She had never shown so much engagement when he wasn't around.)

Wrecka ran through the door like it was made up of butter. The thick security door burst into two pieces as his horn hit the metal. Both parts of the former door fell rattling to the ground, dust blurred the view for some seconds. As it had laid down again, there was the lab we had searched for. Now we just had to find that special disk ML wanted to have.

Some professors and employees stood in the hall, staring with widened eyes full of fear at us. We tied them up, some of them even tried to fight us. One of them used a broom to defense himself. Yes, a broom. Unexpectedly he managed to hit Stingfly so that he crashed into a wall. However, minutes later that courageous professer laid next to his friends, tied up.

"So, where is that thing?" Rayza folded his arms, looked around. The room was large, white floor, white walls, grey security doors. I looked around. It was some kind of main hall. This part seemed to be strictly forbidden for the students on the campus above us. This place was more similiar to a secret government research facility than just a university laboratory.

I was going to find out later that one sector of this lab belonged to the government and was used for experiments on whatever.

"We should go this way", I suggested, "That door looks quite promising."

"You and your freaks are going nowhere", shouted a voice behind us. As I recognized the voice I whirled around, just to face Manning again. Typically. I really had hoped not to see his face at least for this weekend. Well, I was wrong, obviously.

At once all of us clones went into fighting position, facing each a member of Manning's team. I bared my teeth, looking straight into his face, waiting for either Mr. Lee's order to attack or for Manning to start the fight. Okay, the fight hadn't started yet, but the lab was already a total mess.

"So you came? As I expected. You couldn't have missed out our little party, could you, Axel?" I heard Lee's silky tone voice behind me, didn't even look away from my original. Ts, original. Lee used to say that word from time to time, but to be honest, I had nothing in common with Axel. Except the DNA.

_Quite interesting...your handwriting is just the same as Axel's, see?_ I remembered Lee saying once. It was when he checked my usual report on the vehicles I had just proved. And to that sentence I just had to add a growl to let him know I hadn't been very pleased with his compare.

From the corner of my eye I noticed something. While Lee told Manning some random stuff I already knew, I noticed a movement in the doorway. Carefully I listened, trying to ignore Lee's voice. Yes, there was the giggle of a girl, and the hiss of another one. How much there really were, I didn't know. And I wasn't able to figure out. But something was sure, someone was watching us.

Manning caught my attention again as he started the fight. Using Jo-Lan movements I already knew he attacked me, leapt into the air, did a high kick and went at once to his knees to kick my legs. Avoiding his attacks I tried to find a weak point in his defension. I waited for him to do one special move, one move I could block easily and use as a kind of advantage to strike back...

For some reason that move didn't come. I waited in vain. Manning had learned during our last fights, and so had I. Blocking his punch I whirled around, kicked him. As I expected he ducked, a grin went across my face. He stood up again, I smashed my fist into his stomach. Manning winced in pain and surprise, within a second I had risen my leg and kicked him, once again, into his stomach.

His back hit the next wall hardly, dust rose, cracks ran through the wall. Axel fell to his knees, holding his stomach in pain.

"This won't help you", he said seriously. "The police squad is already on its way."

Lioness appeared next to him before I could start another attack. "Continue the fight, lizard, but the police is gonna be here in a few minutes. You could also take your freak squad and escape."

Firekat landed on the ground to my left. She showed her claws and growled deeply. Lioness' face showed a smirk for a part of a second.

"It's your move." She looked at me again. Being afraid that she was right I glanced at Lee standing somewhere in the room. Just then his order to leave came. Stingfly set off a smoke bomb, giving us an advance of some moments. We used the way we had come into this building. Running through the corridor, up the stairs again I heard Manning and the others behind us, their steps echoing in the corridor.

"Don't let them escape this time!", he yelled.

"Hurry up", I hissed to the others. And so we ran even faster than before, heading for the roof.


	2. Stranger Aboard

Chapter 2

Stranger Aboard

And here we are again. Before I continue telling you the story I'm really curious to know why you're here. Everyone has a reason to listen to a story, even if it's the one of a clone. Well, to be honest...I don't care about your reason. Why should I? If you were not interested in my opinion you wouldn't be here reading this now. Again, I'll try my best to keep sarcastic comments on my team mates back...However, I can't promise anything. Ever seen me keeping a promise? Wait, don't reply, I can already guess what you'd tell me.

Ahem...now, I'll continue...

Finally reaching the roof Wrecka opened the door with a loud 'BANG'. Well, he didn't really open it, but separated it from the doorway and nearly tore it into pieces of metal. Mr. Lee got first through the door, we followed him. Only seconds later Manning and his squad stood right behind us, ready to fight. As I turned around to face my archenemy, the other clones followed my example. Quite cool, such a leader function, eh?

A slight grin appeared on my lips as I stood face to face with Axel on top of the roof. Our helicopter stood not far away from us, Lee would be the only one not to fight, so it would be better for him to reach the helicopter and prepare our escape if he didn't want to be caught. As if he could read my thoughts Janus Lee headed for the helicopter, I blockaded Manning's way by stepping into it.

"You're not going anywhere, Lee", said Manning in a dangerous tone, looking past me and directly at Lee.

I bared my teeth and growled in an even more dangerous tone. "I don't think so", I hissed back, and a second later some green paralyzing venom went flying towards Manning and his friends. Actually I didn't really plan to hit any of his team, but wanted some kind of distraction. It worked. The five jumped into different directions to avoid my venom and gave us enough time to get to the helicopter.

We'd have been able to escape easily if Manning hadn't had his little toy. When you need a Tagsword none is around. But when you don't need a Tagblaster in your opponent's hands it is there. A bright blue laser blast smashed into the ground next to me. As if the guy would be able to kill me this way. Such a laser blast would make one of us pass out perhaps, but not kill anyone.

However, if one's unconscious you can catch him as well...

I pushed that thought out of my head, concentrating on avoiding the blasts. He and his team were no good shots. Blasts went flying everywhere, some of them even smashed into the helicopter; hit the roof or several trees around the building. (I bet Manning got some trouble with the fire brigade afterwards...ever tried to extinguish burning plasma? (Bad thing...especially for the trees on the campus.)

We made it safely to the helicopter. Mr. Lee dropped himself in the pilot's seat; I fell into the armchair next to him. The rest of the team was busy closing the door, avoiding several blasts.

I let out a toneless sigh of relief. This hadn't been our day. This hadn't been my day. But hey, what do you expect? It was half past three in the morning. Still dark outside, everyone else in Landmark City was asleep. Except us. I sighed another time, it sounded a bit more annoyed than it was supposed to. Fortunately, Lee was deeply in his own thoughts so he didn't notice it.

Far away from the LC university campus (and Manning) Mr. Lee began to growl loudly.

"Curse it! We _didn't_ get the disk!" The anger in his voice was more than just obvious. Oh great. And I sat next to him.

"Don't worry, we'll try again", I tried to calm him down. "What's so important about that disk, anyway?" I tried to change the subject. I knew he was going to blame us again for this failure, so I wanted him to think about something else before shouting at us. Perhaps he'd even forget it...

"That disk contains important data regarding government research." At first he sounded quite calm; I didn't expect such a tone. As he went on, his voice became louder, angrier and even more aggressive than before. "The data I need to continue my cloning operations! And you have failed to get!"

I sighed mentally. So it came after all, ignoring my tries to distract him. An uncomfortable silence fell; no one said even a word. The only sound at the moment was the permanent buzzing of the rotors.

"Now they will put extra guard around the computer, and Manning's team will be also on the watch out."

Again, silence. And it was really uncomfortable. I knew too well that Lee would be in a bad mood for the next day(s), he'd blame us for this failure again and again. By now I have learned to shut down when he started blaming us again. Yep, I've really shutted down the last time. Perhaps I looked like I was interested or listened to him. In truth I had started daydreaming.

You wonder about this? What would you do if your creator tells you about the same mistakes again and again, blaming you all the time without even thinking of one special possibility: That it could have been his fault as well. The rows with him had all the same structure. He shouted at us, we listened. Or not. Depends on.

Of course I respect Mr. Lee and his work, and I'm thankful to him that he created me. I show this with my endless loyalty to him and accomplish as good as possible. Not even for him the best is good enough. Come on, listening to always the same trouble? A bit boring after a while.

"Hey, and who's that?" Stingfly disturbed the silence. I winced a bit, had been in my thoughts again. Something that happened very often in the last time. Don't ask me for a reason, I really don't know.

"Huh?" Mr. Lee left his seat, entrusted me with the control of the helicopter and turned around to look what was happening behind us. I couldn't turn myself because I had to fly the helicopter. I could just listen to their conversation.

"How did she get here?", I heard Wrecka's voice.

"Maybe we should just throw her off board?" Of course, that suggestion had come from Rayza.

"Maybe you should just shut up?" Really, good suggestion, Firekat. The first useful suggestion in days, congratulation! I rolled my eyes.

I heard that Mr. Lee escaped a sigh of irritation. I really hoped these mutants would shut up now, or they were going to make everything even worse. Lee's mood already was on a low point.

"We're NOT going to throw her off board. Now get to your places, we'll soon be landing."

Sounds of footsteps told me that the others went to their places, wordless.

"We'll deal with you later, Sophie", I heard him saying quietly. Sophie? Who the hell was in the helicopter? And why? I'm a naturally curious person and wanted to find out, of course. Finally Mr. Lee became the pilot again and I could turn to see who laid there.

It was a girl, perhaps 23 or something, with long golden-brown hair she wore in a ponytail. 'How did she get here?', I asked myself and studied her face. So Lee was not going to drop her off somewhere, he was going to take her with us. For what reason ever. Actually I didn't dare to ask him at the moment; it could end up very dangerously for me.

I just cleared my throat, went back into a straight sitting position and looked out of the window. The sun would start rising soon. It was just a matter of minutes. In the east the sky already turned a bit yellow.

In my mind I sighed. Would be a short night again. I looked at the clock next to the navigation gears. 3:40 AM. Awesome. If we were lucky Lee would wake us up at half past six again and send us into training. Afterwards we'd have a nice portion of our bio-diet-food. Couldn't oppress a dry swallow when I thought this. _Bah_...That was everything I associated with bio-diet-food.

Back in our mountain base Lee landed the helicopter and sent the others to their rooms. Except me. Holding back a yawn of tiredness I waited for his order. "Carry the girl to the great hall and lay her on the couch. I'll deal with her when she wakes up."

Lee left, leaving me alone with the still nameless girl. "Ts, I bet he wants us to kill her afterwards. Why taking care of her then?" Now it was official, I was overtired and started talking to myself. And yeah, I hated late night missions.

Lifting the girl I brought her to the great hall, placed her on the sofa there and looked at her for some moments. Now that I could see her in a better light she seemed to be younger. Perhaps 18. I shrugged my shoulders. This was Lee's business, not mine. Latest when he wanted me to kill her she'd become a meaning to me. At the moment...I just wanted to get some sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh wonder, 7:00 AM it was. He had let us sleeping half an hour more than usual. How nice. I just did what everyone would have done in my situation: I took the cover and pulled it up to my chin, closing my eyes again. I didn't want to get up yet. Almost a sleep of three hours...that was a bit less, if you ask me. Even clones needed sleep. Especially clones in that kind of situations.

Half an hour later suddenly the door to my room opened. I had been sleeping, but woke because of the sound the door caused as it slid open. Carefully I opened first one eye, then the other one, and looked with a blurry view at the person in the door.

"Usually you don't stay in bed that long", said the figure in a silky tone voice.

_Mr. Lee_, it ran through my head, and at once I was awake. A second later I had jumped out of the bed and placed in front of it, saluting Lee. "I'm sorry, Sir", I said hasty, "I just overheard the alarm clock."

_As if the others would be already awake...I bet they're still dreaming._

"Like the rest of your team. This behavior is inacceptable and I want you not to do this another time", replied Mr. Lee and folded his arms on his back. "However, get dressed now. I've got some missions for you and your team mates."

Lee turned around in the doorway and left my room, the door closed again with that hissing sound. I breathed out slowly and sank on the bed again, then stretched yawning. This day didn't start very well.

After a bio-breakfast (no, I won't go into detail here! Believe me, you really don't wanna know about it.) The others already went into the training room. This time I didn't follow them. First I wanted to know what kind of missions Mr. Lee had in mind for us. Training could wait.

I was sure Mr. Lee would be in the great hall, looking after the girl. And I was sure she would be awake by now. I mean, such a laser blast doesn't make you pass out for long. Well, depends on the injury you got. Her shoulder was burned, so I suppose she didn't sleep more than just several hours.

As I reached the door to the great hall I heard the laugh of a girl echoing behind it. What the hell was going on there? The girl in there seemed to be quite amused, for what reason ever. Pretty confused I pressed my ear against the door, listening carefully. Lee wouldn't be pleased to see me listening here, and I just hoped he wouldn't leave the hall now.

So, I listened to their conversation...


	3. Hostage

Chapter 3

Hostage

"The whole city is looking for your hideout, Mr. Lee, and you just told of its whereabouts to a girl you've met for the first time in your life!" I heard the girl laughing. Obviously I had missed the joke. However, the girl went on,

"It's pretty obvious, that either you're going to keep me here as a prisoner or hostage or you're about to kill me." For what reason ever her voice sounded calm, neutral, like she wasn't even afraid of ML or what was going to happen to her. Okay, I didn't know what the scientist had in mind, but whatever it was, in the girl's position I'd be in panic now. But she was just calm.

"So you know me?" Lee's turn to speak up. I rolled my eyes. His face was in the newspapers nearly every day, who didn't know him? "And still you're not aghast at the perspective of what might happen to you?"

I heard the girl chuckled.

"And what's the point of panicking? It's not going to help me", she replied. And I bet she smiled. She was really calm, and to be honest, I was impressed. Everyone else in her situation would have panicked, that was sure. Silence fell for some moments; I concentrated even more, just in case Lee would come to the door. But he didn't. Not even one sound was hearable.

"So...What IS going to happen to me?" , the girl asked. Good question, the answer would interest me as well.

Mr. Lee didn't reply, so she continued,

"Well, I cannot deny the fact that I'm not in the little bit interested in what's going to happen to me", she said sarcastically. Slowly she became more likeable to me. Except me and Rayza no one else dared to give Mr. Lee sarcastic replies. I held that kind of comments mostly successfully back, but Rayza usually said what he was thinking. And had lots of trouble with Mr. Lee. The girl seemed to be courageous.

"Hm..."

Silence followed. I couldn't see, unfortunately, what was going on in there.

"Tell me, Sophie", broke Lee the silence, "You said you worked in Landmark University?" So the girl's name was Sophie. And now I suddenly understood why Mr. Lee wanted to keep her around. He knew she worked in the university and could be useful for his plans to get the disk! Not bad, the plan. If it would succeed was another question.

"Y-Yes", replied Sophie a bit hesitating.

"Do you think you could provide us with some valuable information about it?"

So Lee directly came to the point. Why not? She was a hostage, so he could tell her what use she was going to have.

"Depends on how much you already know", she replied seriously.

"Follow me", he said, his steps became louder. He headed for the door! The corridor was too long to run back to the next sphere without being noticed. Quickly I looked around, a smirk crossed my face. As fast as possible I climbed the wall and placed my hands on the other side so that I hung under the ceiling of the glassy corridor. Using my chameleon ability just as Lee and the brown-haired girl passed, I stayed there till they had left the corridor.

Sophie had asked him questions about our hideout on their way to the next sphere and really seemed to be interested in that hardlight stuff.

Relieved that they were gone I let go off the wall and landed almost soundless on the ground again. _What's he gonna show her? _I didn't know. And following them would be very dangerous, in case Lee found out that I was spying.

I walked through the sphere the two had left and took another corridor back to my room. What Mr. Lee would tell her was none of my business. Though I'd have loved to find out, of course. But something told me I'd find out earlier than I wanted to.


	4. Shopping Trip

Chapter Four

Shopping Trip

After one week the girl named Sophie had come to our base we could finally manage to get the disk. It would have been way more embarrassing if we failed once again. Of course I watched her when she was present to our conversations with Lee. Well, it was no real conversation. Lee yelled at us, we tried not to enrage him even more and stayed as good as possible calm.

Sophie usually tried not to burst out in laughter. Perhaps she thought none of us noticed this, but I did. And weirdest was she didn't laugh about us. She laughed because of Lee. I have to admit she was right. Lee indeed is a hilarious man when he's upset about something. But laughing when he was giving us another telling-off...a really bad idea. Not to mention it could end up deadly for one of us.

Rayza came back moments after he had been sent by Lee to get the girl. Sophie entered the room, silence fell. Lee stopped 'praising' us for a while; then spoke up again.

"You've done a good job. Finally! Dismissed", he added, but it sounded pleased. Afterwards Lee sent us away again. I was the last one leaving the room, looked one last time over my shoulder. Lee just turned to Sophie and talked to her about the successful mission we had completed.

I left as well. Talking about the same things over and over again would be a waste of time. I threw a glance at the clock. It was still early, so perhaps the others weren't in our living room. Why I thought of this? Easily. In the living room is the couch, the TV and the gaming console. You have really no idea how often Wrecka wants to watch TV while the rest of us protests and tries to get the gaming console...

(And throwing him off the couch is harder than it sounds. The guy's terribly heavy!)

However, before I could even attempt to think of a plan for a free TV Lee told me to accompy Sophie. He told me to go with her on a shopping trip. Okay, first of all...SHOPPING?? Hello, I'm a guy! And moreover I'm a clone. And male clones _do not_ go on shopping trips. One thing was already sure: the rest of the team would laugh at me for the next weeks because of this.

Quietly I sighed and followed his orders. I had no choice.

A few hours later I accompied the girl to the mall. As usual I wore a long, dark coat, a hat and a scarf which I had wrapped almost around my whole face. _Now I just forgot the sun glasses_, I thought sarcastically and followed Sophie.

Lots of people kept staring at us, mostly at me, and I'd have loved to put off these clothes and simply kill them. Yes, I was annoyed. Why? The reason was obvious. One time I noticed Sophie stared back at a woman so that she looked away. One-to-zero for her. A slight smirk crossed my face.

"Ok", she said suddenly and turned to me. "Listen up!"

Her right index finger pointed into my chest, she was standing on tiptoe to look straight into my face. I'd have laughed if she wouldn't have messed with my nerves that much. Because she was one head smaller than me and she could hardly keep eye contact with me. At the moment, a toneless growl escaped my lips.

"You don't mess with my nerves, you don't get us thrown out of this shop and you DON'T freak out other customers! Got it? Fine, let's go." She turned around again, walking into the first shop.

"You'd better be careful with what you're saying, girl", I hissed. Usually snakes hissed if they were either scared or annoyed and tried to threaten. And I was surely not scared. So you can guess how bad my mood was.

"Mr. Lee didn't give me any specific order on how to talk to you", she snapped, sounding quite arrogant in my opinion. That she stood under Lee's protection didn't allow her to treat me like that. She had no respect or even fear. "On the contrary I bet he told you not to mistreat me."

I growled. She was, unfortunately, right. If Lee found out I just said anything against her he'd surely kill me. Sophie smirked and went into the first shop; I followed her without saying a word. Just the look the clerk threw at me enraged me. _Ts, not getting us thrown out of the shop? The clerk looks like she's gonna come to us and tell us to go at once._

Fifteen minutes later the girl tried on some clothes, went into the changing cabin with lots of bundles of, quiet expensive, clothes. I folded my arms and leaned against the changing cabin, nearly like a body guard. This day would become very, very, very long...

"You know, I'm somehow surprised Mr. Lee actually kept his word. I mean after all he had all the chances of not keeping his word...well, really, why would he?" , she asked, changing back into her own clothes, I guessed.

"You're right", I replied bored. "But he needs to buy your trust."

There was a loud 'cling' sound inside the cabin, the door flew open and Sophie marched out of it. "What?!"

She stopped right in front of me, staring into my face. "What did you just say?" , she asked in a deadly quiet tone. _Well done, you big lizard. Now you blew it._ I had said something which hadn't been supposed to be said. So I just lowered my head and closed my eyes, hoping she'd not ask another time.

"Are you telling me that he let me out and gave me all this money...to buy me?!"

"He wants your loyalty and he is trying to earn it by lavishing you with all the money", I said, realizing that it didn't matter if I lied. The girl was not stupid, she would have found out about the truth anyway.

Obviously enraged Sophie clenched her fists and marched back into the changing cabin, grabbed the bundle of expensive clothes lying in the corner and turned to me again. I was kind of surprised how easy you could change a girl's mood during a shopping trip. And this was no sarcasm.

"Tilian, have you ever heard a saying _'Be careful what you wish for'_?"

I stared at her, confused. She had a plan, had something on her mind, but I couldn't figure out what it was. While I attempted to get a clue Sophie walked over to the clerk and handed the clothes over to her. The woman didn't look very pleased until the girl spoke up.

I stood too far away to get to know what they discussed, but minutes later Sophie and the clerk walked through the shop, picking out several new things. Curiously I watched them, though I didn't move. One time Sophie noticed I was watching them, she simply smirked shifty and turned to the clerk again. Even more confused I squinted, still watching her. She had a plan. But it didn't have to do anything with running away or something in that direction.

Almost an hour later Sophie paid the clothes and gave me some bags to carry. Protesting I took them and we left the shop. I pulled the scarf deeper into my face, though it was uncomfortable warm under it. Why did Lee have to make us so...I don't know...noticeable? I mean, I'm hematocryal, like every reptile. But even a reptile cannot stay for hours in a long coat with a scarf, hat, gloves and a thick pullover. Moreover the heating in the shops was very good.

"Ok, next stop is..."

_Say we'll go home, just say it! _

Thoughtfully Sophie looked around.

_What's so difficult on saying "We got everything, let's go home!"?_

She seemed to have found what she'd been looking for. "Perfume and Cosmetics."

_Great. Now my nose is gonna be affected too. _

"Try to survive that one as well, Tilian. 'Cause I have plans. Big plans."

To try to survive that trip was kind of...it was an understatement. I could hardly fight the feeling inside me which told me to leave this girl AT ONCE. I've never complained before, but this day was too much. I'm a clone, created to...do what Lee wants. Last time I checked I didn't sign up to be a bodyguard or someone to carry other's shopping bags.


	5. Big Surprise

Big Surprise

It was quite late when Miss _I-need-to-shop-all-day_ decided to go back to the base. And with "go" I mean she simply went into the small van I was driving. Like a chauffeur. Hm...when Lee doesn't need me anymore for some reason I could try to get a job as bodyguard / chauffeur / creepy thing...Okay, you know this was sarcasm. Obviously. Ahem...yeah...

What do you expect? I don't have any jokes in my mind after a shopping trip through hell. There's just a humor left not many people share with me.

But this day had had something good, I have to admit. After the beauty salon we visited a book and CD store where Sophie bought some DVD's etc. In the meantime a really nice TV with HDTV and flat screen had caught my attention. However, I didn't want to ask her to buy that one.

In the cafeteria of the mall Sophie told me to get a table for us. After I could find one she brought a large tray with some burgers and drinks. "You can eat as much as you want", she told me with a grin on her lips, noticing my quite confused face. Not to say _dumb_ face. Just one word: Bio diet. However, after some moments of hesitating and Sophie's grins I put off the scarf (after I had made sure there was no one around) and ate almost the whole tray.

Don't get the issue that I'm greedy or something, what would you do after months of bio diets? You get the same stuff every day. And not even I could resist such a nice break from the diet. Sophie was right.

"Nice break from your bio diet, huh?", she asked, watching me consume my third burger. I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"I didn't get you", I said afterwards, putting on the scarf again. "What's your so called _big plan_?"

Sophie smirked. "You'll see. This evening", she simply replied and let my question open. I didn't start another try later.

Back at the base I hurried into my room. Sophie carried all of her bags alone. It was half past five; though I already had my 'dinner' I'd be present at 6 o'clock, like every evening. And until then I hoped Lee wouldn't find out about the mistake I had made this afternoon...ahem...he'd surely kill me or worse. And fortunately you're reading this. I don't want you to see my face right now.

Speaking of which, there was a big surprise at 6pm. I was, as usual, the first one in the dinner room. I sat down to wait for the others and based my elbow on the tabletop. Normally I sat to Lee's right, Sophie sat to his left.

Aw man, don't remember me of the first evenings without the other clones. It was quiet during the dinner time, none of us said a word and Lee was worst of it. He sat there in front of me with a sheet of paper and a pencil and wrote down everything about my behavior. And not only on the first evening out of the cloning lab. He did it the whole week till he knew what I'd do. By heart.

Guess now you know why I escaped the lab and decided to hunt Axel down? Being watched by a maniac during dinner time...it is a very good reason.

The others finally came, but Lee was, as usual, too late. Perhaps he was in his lab, thinking about whatever. I didn't care. I've already had my dinner, so I wasn't dependent on this bio-diet-one.

Sophie entered the room. And what I thought first was...woah, wait, I didn't think anything! The girl wore a skin-tight red top which exposed pretty much of her chest and shoulders. One to nil for her. Especially the guys of our team looked quite...dumbfounded. Even I have to admit now that my face didn't look better. After the first moment of surprised and being speechless I looked down at her.

Alright, Two to nil for the girl. She wore a short, tight black mini-skirt and fitting semi-transparent silk stalkings. I didn't feel attracted to her, but I felt strange. _Didn't see her buying this..._, ran through my head. And that was everything I could think.

Sophie's smirk turned into a grin as she noticed my face. She came directly towards me and stopped right in front of me, we stood almost face to face. Note the almost here. She was a head smaller than me, which made it hard for her to look straight into my face. However, for some reason I couldn't think of that in this moment.

"Tilian, pick your jaw off the floor, and stop. Drooling."

Without waiting for my reaction she turned around and walked back to the table. Only now I noticed my mouth stood a bit open, quickly I closed it and cleared my throat, trying not to blush that hard. And if you wanna know, I can blush. It's more a dark green than red on my cheeks, but meh, what do you expect from a guy with green skin? The others were fortunately busy with her and didn't notice my embarrassing moment.

"Hey, nice new outfit," Firekat was the first to get her speech back in control and studied the girl.

"Yeah, you look hot, girl," Stingfly said.

Sophie's reaction didn't surprise me. I'd have shuddered too if Stingfly and Firekat would have told me "You look good" or so. Especially if Stingfly would have said this..._However_, she pressed out a "_thank you"_. Good rescue.

After a minute of pause the door slid open and Mr. Lee entered the room. "Stingfly, did you..."

Lee's face was priceless as Sophie turned around, her arms folded just below her breasts. Well, in any other situation I would have laughed about Mr. Janus Lee, the genius scientist who just froze. He froze like...I dunno. But my face hadn't been better before. This girl seemed to be pretty popular with men. Especially over her age.

Please. Of course I had noticed she was younger, way younger than she pretended to be.

Mr. Lee said nothing but stared at Sophie.

"You wanted to tell something to Stingfly, Mr. Lee?", she asked, her smirk grew even wider.

_That's a part of her plan, I presume..._ Then it finally 'clicked' in my head. The girl was pretty courageous. And not very silly. If the others knew about it too I think I could risk a bet on her. And the wager would be one afternoon of possessing the TV. Mentally I smirked.

"Stingfly, Mr. Lee", she repeated. Lee seemed to think about her words but couldn't figure out how to react. He still stared at her, Sophie grinned and squinted slightly. "You wanted to tell him something, I believe." She gestured towards Stingfly with her head. Lee didn't follow her look but stared at her.

Very slowly he looked at Stingfly. "Oh, umm...N-never mind..." He cleared his throat; every one of us clones oppressed a smirk. Firekat whispered something into my ear and I simply nodded in agreement, smirking slightly.

Alright, just one word to the dinner: BORING. The others asked some question about Sophie herself, about her past and her life. I didn't listen because I already knew that. She had talked a lot during our shopping trip and so I've gotten to know lots of things about her.

Sometime later silence fell again. I watched Sophie carefully, always minding her reactions on whatever. She had a plan. And I wanted to find out everything about it. She looked at Lee's napkin which was about to fall off the table.

She moved her elbow only slightly and pushed it away so that it fell. _Clever_, I thought. _Now let's see if it succeeds_.

Sophie and Lee bent down at the same time; I sat up a bit straighter to be able to watch them. Their hands touched, they looked up into each other's faces. Lee's look went down her chest..._Bingo! _He stared exactly at what Sophie had wanted to expose. Curiously I stared at them, almost forgot swallowing.

She sat up again; Lee did the same, just way slower like he had rusted on the way down. Sophie smirked and handed the napkin over to him. "Here", she grinned and Lee still stared at her.

In contrast to the other clones I knew what was going on. _And she's good_, I thought and sipped on my glass. Sophie drank wine, I preferred water. (At least in the base, if Lee wasn't around we usually grabbed us a pizza and cola...but don't let him hear that!)

Nothing notable happened this evening. But I noticed Lee couldn't stop throwing glances at Sophie when she didn't seem to notice it. After dinner the Mu-Team left, I was the last one.

I didn't know if it was a good idea to leave the two alone, I mean, the poor man was kind of...helpless. Though I smirked as I left. "Good luck", I thought and headed for my own room. I'd notice it early enough if something had happened.

However, the next few days nothing happened. One time we brought the little brother of one of Mannings friends to the base because Lee needed his help for his hardlight vehicle. The boy, being super-intelligent and blah blah blah was able to find out what had went wrong in Lee's experiments, but Lee himself had found him a bit 'too intelligent'. He tried to get rid of him after he had gotten what he had wanted.

If the guy survived, I don't know. And I don't really care. Why should I? Duke was just a hostage for a short amount of time, in contrast to Sophie, who stayed with us now for several weeks.

Sophie, however, became more and more likeable to me. I didn't know why. But her plan to make Lee feel attracted to her was a complete success. The girl was just brilliant.

She kept on wearing her new clothes, which were quite new to me. I mean, I've been with her on a shopping trip, yeah? But I didn't see her buying those clothes. Not that I'd have been interested or so. Ts, shopping...I snorted when I thought about it again.

_"Do you think this colour fits to the jeans?", Sophie asked, standing next to me in front of the mirror, outside the changing cabin. If you don't know, this is a flashback (as you can see from the italic written letters) and it just plays in the mall. _

_"Whatever", I replied, obviously bored. What did you expect?!_

_"And the belt?"_

_"Whatever."_

_Sophie looked at me while I stared absent-minded out of the shop window. "What do you think about these boots?"_

_"Whatever."_

_She smirked, without that I even noticed it, and placed her hands on her hips. "With the hat and the scarf you look like a strange, ugly clown."_

_"Whatev- Hey!" Only now I realized what she had said and turned to her again, my face darkened. Sophie simply grinned and walked back into the changing cabin, throwing a last triumphant glance at me. _

Yeah yeah. She was able to play simple tricks on me. But the situation in the mall had been different. When I'm awake my senses are sharper than a knife. Don't believe it? Well, your prob.

She had a good sense of humor, though. I liked the sarcastic comments she gave when Stingfly had one of his 'silly moments' in that he made jokes no one could laugh about. (Umm...actually he doesn't have 'silly MOMENTS'. In his case it is an attitude.) But Sophie always had a sarcastic comment, and I liked that. Was a good distraction after an unsuccessful mission.

Of course I didn't show that I liked her that much. From time to time we had a short conversation, I told her about the missions and she told me some things about Lee she got to know when we weren't around. Was a fair information exchange.

The last mission was a failure again. Lee wasn't very happy about this, by the way. Wasn't my fault, if you wanna know. Rayza did not - Well, I'm gonna leave this part out. But the elementary prob in our team was that we weren't a team. Every one of us knew that. But we didn't want to change the fact. Why? We didn't like each other. Sure, we lived together, but what did it mean? Nothing at all.

It was about 11 pm when we left the lab, everyone of us not very happy. I felt like I'd eaten a truck of lemons. When I think about it...eww...never liked lemons. I preferred pizza.

Sophie walked past us on the corridor, we ignored her. From the corner of the eye I saw she wore a black turtle-neck dress and a wide belt. Fitted her figure quite well, I have to say. If she hadn't been trying so hard to make Lee feel attracted to her, this effect would have worked on me. However, my chances on her were...smaller than Stingfly's brain.

Moreover it was not because of real feelings; it was because of pure curiosity. Firekat didn't look bad either, but she didn't wear that kind of clothes, exposing whatever. But Sophie did. And it worked. Why? It's some kind of instinct. Men usually feel attracted to the best looking women. Lee had NO chance to resist if Sophie used the right situation.

"Hey, guys! How did the mission go? Is everyth...," She stopped, staring at us as we walked past without replying.

"Hey! What's the big idea?! In case, you haven't noticed, I'm talking to you!" She really yelled at us. Quietly, that she didn't hear it, I sighed.

"The mission was a failure", I said without even turning around.

"Huh?"

We were too far away to hear what she said. In our living-room Wrecka dropped himself on the couch; in the meantime Rayza turned on the TV and sat down next to the giant. Stingfly sighed and fell into an armchair, Firekat yawned and stretched.

I didn't want to hang out with these guys. So I headed for my own room, already looking forward to my warm, comfortable bed...It was just 11 pm, I know, but I was tired. After the fight with Manning I was glad we had managed to escape. I so need to work on my condition...My left arm ached slightly, my legs felt numb. Meh, I've never complained that much before. Now it was proved. I was totally overtired.

"Already going to bed, Till?" Firekat looked at me, her arms folded on her chest, expecting an answer.

I turned around. "Yeah, why not?"

"C'mon, Fire, let him. Our reptile needs its beauty sleep", Rayza joked.

"That won't help in a million of years", added Wrecka chuckling. "The rings under his eyes won't disappear even if he slept for weeks."

My eyes narrowed as I looked at the two. "Way better than looking like a creepy tuna on land and a rotten mix of a djinn and a rhino."

"Sure", laughed Stingfly. "Now you try not to blame ML for that."

"I don't blame him", I replied, trying to stay calm. But they were right. It was Mr. Lee's fault that we looked like mutants. That we _were _mutants. Sorry. "Because I'm satisfied with my appearance."

Okay, my sarcasm was kind of gone. I was tired. What did you expect?

"Me too", agreed Firekat. Oh, wait, what was that?! Firekat had the same opinion as me? Mark this day in a calendar! Firekat agreed with me!! Now I wanted to know more.

"What?", I asked, slightly smirking. "You're satisfied with your appearance or with mine?"

It was quite funny to see her face in that moment. I hardly oppressed a chuckle. She squinted a few times before she turned around, heading for her own room.

"Both", she replied in a low voice and disappeared.

"Awww", joked Rayza, overdoing it a bit. "She admires you!"

I used this situation and grinned brightly. "I know."

"You know?" The others' faces were priceless. They stared at me with widened (in Stingfly's case even stranger looking) eyes and expected an explanation for my reply. I oppressed a laugh.

"Of course I knew she couldn't resist someone as good looking as me."

Leaving this sentence in the room I went into my bedroom, really falling into the bed with a quiet grown of tiredness.

**Okay, reviews, anyone? Please? Tell me what you think 'bout the story :) Thanks to _musamelody, LiLiAnKa _and _MariSunny, _the actual owner of the "Hostage"-plot, for their reviews:)))**


	6. The Finale

The Finale

The following days were even more confusing for me and the rest of my team. When Sophie was around Lee, he was totally different. The tension between them was not to ignore. It was obvious Sophie had won; Lee hadn't been able to resist her. I chuckled when I thought about this. The great Janus Lee in love. Sounds like a weird soap opera on TV, but it was the real life. I mean, this isn't a cartoon that ends so simple that we're gonna land on an isle with a freaky hunter dude...is it? If yes, I'm gonna march into SIP's office and give them a piece of my mind.

And I won't be pleased. Living with four mutants together on an isle for the rest of my life? NO WAY.

Ahem...yeah, whatever.

The two of them spent lots of time together and even went to town from time to time. Sophie really seemed to enjoy the time they spent together. And a few days after their first trip into town Sophie kept on wearing an expensive looking necklace Lee had given her.

The scientist seemed to forget us. I don't complain about the free time we had from then on, but it was more boring. And I bet Manning and his team got suspicious because nothing happened. We didn't break into some buildings, we didn't steal anything because of Lee.

Well…the story I'm telling you is ending soon. You know that. Because Lee and Sophie didn't do anything around us and so I have no idea about them.

One evening Lee and the girl had gone out. He had brought her away, I didn't know the place. I only knew Lee used his hardlight to bring her away. And something told me it wasn't good.

Hours before he had talked to me.

"Times are changing, Tilian. And I think this time it will be even more difficult than before."

"What do you mean, Sir?"

He rubbed his aching head. "Well…you know about the danger I told you about. And you know they're gonna find me soon. This hideout is not safe anymore. I'll have to be going soon, I'm afraid."

"And where? What about us?"

"I don't know. First I have to get Sophie outta here or-"

"I could get rid of her", I suggested. "She annoys me the longer she's here."

"No way!" Lee seemed to become angry. Defensive I raised my hands.

"You know this was a joke!", I hissed quickly.

Mr. Lee growled and turned away from me. Quietly I breathed out relieved. "Anyway, what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea yet…"

And then he had sent me away. And now I was as helpless as anyone else here. We didn't know what Lee had done to the girl, but we knew he had returned without her. His face had been pale, his eyes kind of red. I had never seen him that…broken before.

He really seemed to regret what he had done. But no one of us wanted to ask him. And the next day he was as busy as always, sat in his lab and thought about things that were way too high for us.

After some days everything seemed to be normal again. Lee had worked on a special liquid which strengthened us and made our mutations become better.

What I mean with better? Firekat had longer and sharper claws, better ears and looked…interesting. Wrecka had become even sillier than before, Stingfly had four arms from then on and Rayza looked like a gigantic fish which had just escaped its aquarium.

And I? Umm…Call me a big lizard. Long claws, ruffled and long ginger hair, strange mark in the face and, my favorite feature, the tail. Yep, a lizard tail in two nice greens which laid a bit on the ground when I stood normally.

Lee was definitely normal again.

He lured Manning and his team into a trap. Directly into our hideout. One of us fought against one of them. And though they beat us when we were separated we could manage to bring them down as we were in the main hall again.

And then something happened that shouldn't have happened. I knew the others were annoyed by ML because of his behavior. I have to admit I was quite annoyed too. Perhaps it was because of the thing with Sophie…however, we didn't know.

As I was about to kill Lioness, I simply couldn't.

"Like I said, that's the difference between us", she said and looked at me.

I squinted and stopped. She was right. She had saved me and now I was about to kill her. That wasn't right. I simply ignored Lee who was telling me to kill her.

Unsecure I looked at the others.

"You're the leader, Tilian", Firekat said and nodded. "Lead."

I swallowed. My eyes focused Lioness again. Call me weak, but I just couldn't kill her. Instead, we helped Manning to defeat Lee who disappeared in a hardlight ball. And thanks to me the whole hideout blew up. The Mu-Team and I stole Manning's ride and escaped as well.

(Sorry, but I don't wanna mention any detail here…)

Remember the beginning of this chapter? I told you I'd freak out if I landed on an island with this team. And guess what happened…?

Yep. Only a day later we lay at the beach and had fun with our new buddy, Colonel Steel. We had lots of fun with chasing each other! And without Wrecka's…well…simple mind we wouldn't have so much fun. And note my sarcasm here.

The story is over now. I can't tell you more. Because I'm simply not around Lee to watch him. Sorry guys. Well, while I enjoy my free vacation on this island have fun with other stuff.

**THE END**

**Well, it may be a short end, but I really can't tell more :( coz from now on the relationship between Lee and Sophie is more described and the mutants are gone :'( (poor Tilian xDD) See you in another story!!**

**And just btw, thanks to MariSunny for writing such a great plot in "Hostage"! You and ur stories rock :D**


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